macOS A few questions

[DaveGBR]

Hi there, I'm thinking about buying a Powerbook sometime in January (once my next student loan comes through and I have a bit more purchasing power!) but wanted to do a little background research first. I currently use Linux on a Dell laptop and use it mostly for programming and web stuff, I've heard a lot about Mac OS X being (sort of) UNIX based and having the familiar Terminal interface.
So, few quick questions:

- What kind of (preferably open source or freeware) development tools are there?

- Same as above but for 'classic' widely used languages such as C/C++, BASIC, Java etc

- Same again but low level and dirty, assembler type?

- My first desire would be to get a decent C compiler, is there a Mac version of gcc (or alternative)?

Also as a kind of side hobby I collect "antique" computers, Spectrums, Amigas etc that kind of thing. I've just won a Powerbook 520c on eBay (spec here) and it'd be nice to do a little programming on that as well. Bearing in mind its age and specs would it be possible to do any programming on that too (C being my langauge of choice but not limited to it)?

 

[caveman_uk]

- What kind of (preferably open source or freeware) development tools are there?

Yes, you can get pretty much all the development tools you want as Mac OS X is based on FreeBSD.

- Same as above but for 'classic' widely used languages such as C/C++, BASIC, Java etc

GCC and the usual toolchain is available. Many other tools can be installed using fink.

- Same again but low level and dirty, assembler type?

Dunno, I presume the unix tools work. Remember that MacOS X currently runs on PowerPC processors so the intel tools will be of limited use on current machines. Intel-based machines will be released next year.

- My first desire would be to get a decent C compiler, is there a Mac version of gcc (or alternative)?

Yes

 

[jeremy.king]

- My first desire would be to get a decent C compiler, is there a Mac version of gcc (or alternative)?

Yeah...gcc

I am sure you will find the XCode to be right up your alley. Combine that with Terminal/vi/Eclipse and you should have more than enough tools to code all kinds of great software.

 

[DaveGBR]

Fantastic, thanks for answering my questions

 

[Selivanov]

Fantastic, thanks for answering my questions

Hmm. MacOS X is not so *nix-like as it should be. For example, i try to compile Midnight Commander on my computer (MacOS X 10.4 Tiger). He (MC) said that he wants glib package. I try to compile glib package. It asks me for gettext library. And so on... At the end of that story i stuck on the gcc localization.
The most platform undepended thing in MacOS X is Java applications

 

[balamw]

Hmm. MacOS X is not so *nix-like as it should be. For example, i try to compile Midnight Commander on my computer (MacOS X 10.4 Tiger). He (MC) said that he wants glib package. I try to compile glib package. It asks me for gettext library. And so on... At the end of that story i stuck on the gcc localization.
The most platform undepended thing in MacOS X is Java applications

You'd have the exact same problems on any other commercial unix. It's part of the unix credo of "do one thing well" that apps are often built using lots of other little libraries, which may not be standard on your distro. I remember running through similar hoops compiling GNU software on HP-UX and Solaris, that is until you get all of the GNU packages you want/need on there.

As for midnight commander on OS X, why not just apt-get it using fink? http://fink.sourceforge.net/

B

 

[caveman_uk]

Hmm. MacOS X is not so *nix-like as it should be. For example, i try to compile Midnight Commander on my computer (MacOS X 10.4 Tiger). He (MC) said that he wants glib package. I try to compile glib package. It asks me for gettext library. And so on... At the end of that story i stuck on the gcc localization.

This is the reason the Linux/FreeBSD guys spent ages getting decent package installers working. For example, rpm, apt-get, portage (Gentoo Linux), and the ports system on FreeBSD.

Mac OS X has three (to my knowledge) such systems - fink, darwinports and Gentoo Portage (the first two seem more developed).

Fink - http://fink.sourceforge.net/
DarwinPorts - http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/
Portage for Mac OS X-http://www.metadistribution.org/macos/